Last Acts

Sammartino’s acerbic debut revolves around a troubled father and son in a desolate part of Phoenix, Ariz. David Rizzo’s 30-year-old son, Nick, who’s on the rebound from a heroin overdose, agrees to help his father turn around his latest failing business, a gun shop in an industrial wasteland. They devise a marketing scheme involving a pledge to donate a percentage of the store’s proceeds to a drug rehab center, with Nick acting as the campaign’s poster boy. It works, until a school shooting dampens interest in gun sales. Sammartino spices up the shaggy dog narrative with a transcript of the Rizzos’ various failed attempts to make a TV commercial (“NICK remains in front of wall, but his smile fades, replaced by a glazed stare. He fidgets”) and social media posts Nick writes for a hospice in an effort to raise more cash (“Dying is hard. We make it easy”; “never die alone again #unity”). Sammartino takes aim at some broad and predictable targets as he traces the Rizzos’ downward slide through a collapsing America. Still, his characters’ mutual affection feels genuine. This satisfies on multiple levels. Agent: Michael Mungiello, InkWell Management. (Jan.)